Racial and ethnic disparities have been manifested almost across all forms of life interactions. Minority groups have been seen to experience discrimination or poor treatment in their interactions such as the whites. This is said to happen even when the conditions that the two groups face are similar. It is not different in healthcare, despite the level of professionalism that is associated with the discipline. These differences manifest themselves regarding access to care, medical insurance coverage, and health status (The Clinical Encounter, pg 160) . However, even when these have been addressed, racial and ethnic healthcare disparities remain (The Clinical Encounter, pg 160) .
There are three different mechanisms through which patterns of disparities can be manifested ( The Clinical Encounter, pg 161) . These are bias or prejudice against minorities, high levels of uncertainty when dealing with minority patients and existence of beliefs or stereotypes held by the provider with regards to the health or the social behavior of the minorities (The Clinical Encounter, Pg 161) . Bias or prejudice occurs when the health providers have a high disregard for the minority patients’ health (Parekh and Childs, 2016. Pg 67-81) . Clinical uncertainty may result from lack of sufficient information to the minority health conditions resulting to poor medical attention (Parekh and Childs, 2016. 183-189) . Stereotypes usually affect the judgment of the doctors based on prior experiences by the doctors or societal beliefs about the minority social and cultural behaviors.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Patients’ behavior can also lead to disparities in medical attention between the minorities and the superior groups. Minority groups usually have a misconception of poor treatment by the doctors or medical practitioners (Mathew, 2015. Pg 9-10). This may result in insufficient information relayed to the doctors, resulting in poor treatment. In some instances, the minorities’ behavior towards treatment may cause the doctor to pay little attention to the patients’ problems due to stereotypes (Mathew, 2015. Pg 33-35). Some minorities are said to tend to disobey medical instructions, subsequently leading to little attention to patients by the doctors.
Questions To Ask
What other mechanisms can discriminatory behavior manifest?
Can patients’ behavior lead to disparities in how they are treated by the physicians?
References
Matthew, D. B. (2015). Just medicine: A cure for racial inequality in American health care . Pg 9-10, 33-35
Parekh, R., & Childs, E. W. (2016). Stigma and prejudice: Touchstones in understanding diversity in healthcare . Pg 67-81, 183-189
The Clinical Encounter. (n.d.). Retrieved From www.nap.edu . Pg 160,161
